Annemarie Miller and Colleen Sterling can’t bear to see a plant orphaned.
That’s why they spent a frigid morning last weekend helping to dig lady’s mantle, Autumn Joy sedum, coral bells and more from a garden at F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm, which is being removed to make way for the eventual construction of a shelter.
Miller and Sterling are participants in Women on a Rescue Mission, a program of the Stark County Master Gardeners commonly known by its acronym, WORM. It’s the horticultural version of an adoption service: The master gardeners salvage plants their owners no longer want or can care for, and then they nurture the plants until they can be relocated to new homes.
Some of the plants go to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Stark & Carroll Counties, which distributes them to its homeowners to beautify their landscapes. Others are sold at the master gardeners’ annual Plant Expo, an educational program and plant sale.
Miller started the WORM program about three years ago after reading about a similar effort in a gardening magazine. “When I read the article, I thought, gee, that would be a great project for us,” she said.
The gardeners rescue mostly perennials, and only plants that are small enough to be dug easily and potted. The plants are relocated temporarily to four 4-by-8-foot holding beds at the Ohio State University Extension’s Stark County office in Massillon.
Last year, the master gardeners gave more than 200 plants to Habitat for Humanity and sold about 150 more, Miller said. Those plants were gathered in seven or eight rescue ventures, “which doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a lot of work,” Sterling said.
Last Saturday, Miller and Sterling worked to clear the Nature Realm’s Kremer Memorial Garden alongside about a dozen Summit County Master Gardeners and a handful of employees from the Metro Parks, Serving Summit County.
The garden had been planted by the Summit master gardeners near what used to be the park system’s volunteer center. But after the building was demolished a few years ago, the garden was left in a spot that no longer drew many park visitors, said Laura Esposito, the Nature Realm’s grounds and facilities manager.
The Summit gardeners were on a rescue mission of their own. Besides helping to supply the WORM program, they salvaged plants for their own sales and for other gardens in the Metro Parks.
The weather was wintry, but the gardeners were undaunted.
“This is crazy! Come on, God!” Summit master gardener Pat Labbe joked as icy pellets gathered on the ground and stuck to hats and sweatshirts.
The gardeners stabbed shovels into the earth, cut back grasses and hacked apart stubborn clumps with a hatchet. They took pains to avoid trampling the creeping thyme that was destined for a memorial garden near the Nature Realm’s administration building.
Eventually the snow tapered and the clouds broke. Some of the gardeners peeled back hoods that had protected cold ears.
“Gee, now I’m getting warm,” event organizer Marietta Tromp declared.
As their muscles tired, the rows of potted plants arranged neatly by type grew longer. There was reed grass and catmint, oxeye and lilyturf. Some of the plants still bore their brown winter foliage; others were green with new spring growth.
Many will make their way into gardens planted by the owners of Habitat homes. Habitat educates the homeowners on caring for their plants in an effort to help the owners help themselves, Miller said.
She said the Stark master gardeners spread the word about their WORM program through fliers they distribute, as well as sign-up opportunities at their Plant Expo.
Donors are often older people who are preparing to leave longtime homes or who can no longer keep up with the demands of a garden, Miller said. Some are widowed and don’t have the knowledge or interest to carry on their late spouses’ gardening work.
One donor just had too many plants for her small space, Miller said. “She was out there with us,” she said, “She wanted to get involved.”
The program has had its challenges. Last year was so dry that plants were stressed, forcing the gardeners to limit their rescues. On top of that, the water supply at their holding gardens wasn’t turned on promptly in the spring, so the WORM volunteers had to haul water from their homes in jugs, buckets or any other containers they could dig up.
But they persevered.
The orphaned plants depended on it.
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com. You can also become a fan on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/mbbreck, follow her on Twitter @MBBreckenridge and read her blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/mary-beth.